Perfect birthdaypresent
by Misura
Summary: Seto convinces Joey not to go to Otogi's birthday-party, thus (unknowingly) giving Otogi the best gift of all. [OtogiHonda, SetoJoey]


Perfect birthdaypresent

Warnings/notes : Otogi/Honda, Seto/Joey (established), slightly silly, slight hints at sex, bad language.

Disclaimer : I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. 

written at 26th february 2004, by Misura, for Otogi-san's birthday (the 28th)

**********

It was a plan worthy of a genius. Which, considering Otogi had come up with it, was nothing but logical. It was perfect in its simplicity, brilliant in its beauty and absolutely, 100% fool-proof. Best of all, it would get him a date with the most desirable yet oh so oblivious Honda Hiroto.

Otogi had been trying to get him alone for quite a while now, but all of his advances were met in a spirit of friendship. If he proposed to go to the movies, Honda promptly suggested they'd go see PizzaWars II, 'since Jou hasn't seen that one yet', immediately assuming Otogi had invited the rest of Yugi-tachi as well.

Rationally, Otogi knew he should just *tell* the brunette he meant his proposal to be an invitation for a date, only his silver tongue seemed to fail him whenever Honda was around. It was all really cliched and embarrassing and Otogi didn't like it one bit.

He was Ryuuji Otogi! People threw themselves at his feet, *begging* for an evening in his company. He didn't need to chase after *anyone*. (Well, there had been that whole affair with Shizuka, only that had been more of a 'let's not let Honda get the girl' than anything else, from his side. He still didn't know about Honda's view on the whole thing.)

But anyway, all of that would be over after today. Either his plan worked and he'd hook up with Honda for as long as they both felt like it or his plan worked and he'd acquire Honda as a boyfriend until either of them got tired of it. 

All he had to do was wait for the right moment to get Honda alone. Which, knowing that Honda's locker was nowhere near that of Jounouchi or Yugi, wasn't all that hard. He had had to sacrifice a full fifteen minutes of his beauty-sleep to be there in time, but he assured himself it would be well worth it in the end.

"Hey, Honda." Otogi sauntered over, barely able to keep from smirking in satisfaction.

"Hey, Otogi! You're early." Honda smiled, causing Otogi's heart to skip a beat. Yuck. He was getting way too mushy over this. Better set phase 2 of his plan in motion before he started to make declarations of undying love and devotion.

"It's my birthday today so I'm going to throw a bit of a party this evening. Want to come?" He did his best to sound nonchalant. And to keep his mind out of the gutter.

"Sure. Sounds cool." Honda grinned, extending his hand. "Congratulations."

Otogi beamed. Of course he'd never really expected his plan *not* to work but still, the taste of success was quite sweet. Honda would probably taste even sweeter, but that was something he shouldn't think of just yet.

"Thank you." If only Honda knew ... oh, this was going to be perfect! He really was too smart sometimes, coming up with plots like this one. 

"A party? With free food?"

Otogi blinked, wondering where on earth Honda had learned to speak without moving his lips. Or to speak sounding like Jounouchi, for that matter. Because it *couldn't* be Jou who had just said that, could it? Jou, who had to be kept from hearing about Otogi's party at all costs, since it'd be just him and Honda having a celebration.

"Can't you think of anything else but food?" Honda scoffed, glaring at Jou. Otogi agreed with him whole-heartedly. Though he had to admit he preferred Honda to voice both their dismay on this rude interruption of a private moment, considering that Seto Kaiba was standing next to Jou looking thoroughly pissed off at the brunette's words.

"Of course I can! Geez, I was only asking!" Jou rolled his eyes. "But anyway, who else is going to come? I hope you're not going to invite your whole fanclub or something."

Otogi managed not to snap that he had actually been intending to invite only one person. He probably had Honda's presence to thank for that, he thought. Honda just ... did something to him.

"No, just a group of friends." He smiled. It wasn't much of a smile, kind of like Seto Kaiba trying to look happy and stress-free, but it was better than the scowl he wanted to throw at Jou.

"Sounds all right." Jou nodded, as if Otogi needed his approval for whom he was going to invite for *his* party. And then people called *Otogi* arrogant! "A great chance for Seto to practice being social!"

Kaiba's expression darkened considerably at that. Otogi smelled a chance. "Well, if the two of you'd rather stay home, I understand. I'm not - "

"Nonono, we'll come." Jou shook his head. Kaiba sent Otogi a murderous glare, as if it was *his* fault Jou was being such a ... mutt. "Have you already asked Yugi and Ryou? If you haven't, I could - "

"No need, I can ask them myself. You just make sure you get a good present." Otogi smirked, trying to look the part of a greedy birthday-boy and praying it wouldn't put off Honda.

"Oh, okay." Jou blinked. He felt like something was wrong here, but he couldn't quite figure out what. Or why Seto kept trying to yank him away.

*****

"Do you have any idea what gift I could get for Otogi?" Jou asked. He and Seto had returned to Seto's mansion after a morning of school. It was Saturday, meaning they had at least the afternoon off.

"You really are an idiot, aren't you?" Seto scoffed.

"What did I do?" Jou demanded, mentally running over the possible reasons his lover might have for such a baseless accusation.

"You ruined Otogi's date, for one." Seto rolled his eyes.

"I did? Wow!" Jou hadn't really considered himself capable of such a feat. Now, it wasn't that he thought he was dumb, but ruining one of Otogi's dates? Him? "How?"

"Oh, forget it. You're just so cute when you're clueless, you know that?" Seto's tone of voice told Jou he was about to be ravished. Though Seto's hands gave him a hint too, prying off his shirt before his mind caught on and suggested he put up some sort of resistance, just to let Seto know his puppy wasn't totally -

"Uhm." Jou's brain decided that now was a good moment to shut down and just lean back to enjoy the ride, ignoring the nagging thought that he was forgetting something. Something important. Something to do with - "Otogi!"

"What about him?" Seto growled, nipping at Jou's neck. The CEO sounded almost jealous. Jou supposed it *was* kind of stupid of him to call someone else's name as the first response to Seto's attempt to give this afternoon a turn for the better.

"Present! Party!" Two whole words. Either Seto was losing his touch, or he was holding back to give Jou the opportunity to actually answer the question. Jou hoped it was the last.

"We're not going," Seto stated in his 'obey the master, pup' -voice. 

"But - " Jou whined. 

"I'll buy you all the food you want." Seto promised.

"But - " 

Opportune as ever, Seto chose that moment to reveal that no, he hadn't lost his touch, thus rendering Jou incapable of coherent speech or thought for the next thirty minutes, after which his head became clear enough for him to yell 'Seto' at the top of his lungs. At which point he had forgotten all about birthdays and presents.

*****

He should have known. Lady Luck had always had a weak spot for Ryuuji Otogi and she wasn't going to let him down on this special day. He should have known that. Though it was a nice surprise this way.

"I don't think anyone else is going to come anymore." Honda remarked, frowning. "Though I wonder where they all are. They could at least have called or something."

This was it. His cue to admitting that he hadn't invited anyone else at all, that he had wanted to be alone with Honda to tell him ...

"Though it's kind of nice this way too, huh? Just the two of us." Honda continued. Otogi noted the brunette was slightly blushing. 

"Yes." He wanted to bang his head against the wall. What had happened to his carefully rehearsed speeches? What had happened to Otogi the smooth talker?

"You really think so?" Honda stared at him with wide eyes. Otogi blinked.

"Why else would I say that? I've been trying to get you alone for *ages*. But you were forever evading me, inviting other people along when I was just asking *you*!"

It was Honda's turn to blink. "I ... didn't want to be alone with you, because I was afraid I'd lose control and go all romantic on you and scare you off."

Otogi shook his head, laughing. It *was* very funny, in a way, after all. "Love does turn people into fools, doesn't it? Ah well, how about we go make up for the time we lost beating around the bush?" He winked at Honda, whose blush deepened.

"That sounds ... kind of nice." Which, Otogi wryly considered, wasn't the most enthusiastic of replies, but one he was more than willing to settle for.

~OWARI~


End file.
